King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, issued public thanks Friday to the Kingdom's Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bin Abdullah Bin Muhammad Aal Al-Sheikh, for issuing an edict criminalizing the financing of terrorism. In a letter to Aal Al-Sheikh, who is Chairman of the Board of Senior Ulema and the Department of Scientific Research and Iftaa, King Abdullah described financing terrorism as “corrupting and a threat to security, and a crime against lives, money and private and public property”. “We thank you and the Board of Senior Ulema for the decision and its Shariah judgment – supported with evidence and justification – on this reprehensible crime which is equivalent to terrorism itself and indeed fuels it and attempts to spread corruption in the land, threaten our security, and target our installations and our moderate approach,” the King's letter said. The edict was issued on April 12 following an exceptional meeting of the Board of Senior Ulema in Riyadh to study the financing of terrorism in accordance with instructions from King Abdullah on March 23.
